es are an
inseparable three. The Italian _Fata_ is independent of her
sisters. They are enchantresses; but they differ from other
enchantresses in being immortal. They are beautiful, loo,
and their beauty is immortal: always in Bojardo. He would
not huvu turned Alcina into an old woman, as Arioslo did;
which I must always consider a dreadful blemish on the many
charms of the _Orlando Furioso_.

_Algernon._ I remember the passage well. The beautiful _Fata_, dancing
and singing by the fountain, presents a delightful picture.

_Morgana._ Then, you know, Orlando, who had missed his opportunity of
seizing the golden forelock while she was sleeping, pursues her a long
while in vain through rocky deserts, _La Penitenza_ following him with a
scourge. The same idea was afterwards happily worked out by Machiavelli
in his _Capitolo del Occasion_.

_Algernon._ You are fond of Italian literature? You read the language
beautifully. I observe you have read from the original poem, and not
from Bemi's _rifacciamento_.

_Morgana._ I prefer the original. It is more simple, and more in
earnest. Bemi's playfulness is very pleasant, and his exordiums are
charming; and in many instances he has improved the poetry. Still, I
think he has less than the original of what are to me the great charms
of poetry, truth and simplicity. Even the greater antiquity of style has
its peculiar appropriateness to the subject. And Bojardo seems to have
more faith in his narrative than Berni. I go on with him with ready
credulity, where Berni's pleasantry interposes a doubt.

_Algernon._ You think that in narratives, however wild and romantic, the
poet should write as if he fully believed in the truth of his own story.

_Morgana._ I do; and I think so in reference to all narratives, not to
poetry only. What a dry skeleton is the history of the early ages
of Rome, told by one who believes nothing that the Romans believed!
Religion pervades every step of the early Roman history; and in a great
degree down at least to the Empire; but, because their religion is
not our religion, we pass over the supernatural part of the matter in
silence, or advert to it in a spirit of contemptuous incredulity. We do
not give it its proper place, nor present it in its proper colours, as
a cause in the production of great effects. Therefore, I like to read
Livy, and I do not like to read Niebuhr.

_Algernon._ May I ask if you read Latin?